Oliver Dragojević, the man who has given the meaning of music to Croatia for 50 years, celebrates his 70th birthday today.
On December 7, 1947, Oliver Dragojević was born. Today 70 years young, Croatia’s biggest and most respected music star will celebrate his long life with two sold-out concerts this month at Spaladium Arena in the city of his heart, Split. The music spectacle is bound to unite the entire region.
While it is impossible to count Oliver’s hits, his best concerts and favorite collaborations, today we celebrate a man whose voice has reached every corner of Croatia; to the depths of the entire region.
Dragojević was given the name ‘Oliver” after ‘Oliver Twist’, a character from the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens. His mother claimed it was because they were postwar poor. He remembers his childhood with love, harmony, and poverty, reports 24 Sata on December 7, 2017.
“It was a bad time. Little money, little food. Mother and father worked, and Aljoša and I cooked at home by ourselves. It’s more honest to say that Aljo cooked, and I helped with the dishes. There was no meat, but I seem to remember that we were getting help. I remember the American butter, we called it ‘John Wayne’ butter, with powdered milk. When I was small and was asked what I wanted to be when I grow up, I said ‘a butcher’. I knew a son of a butcher, and he ate meat every day,” said Oliver in Zlatko Gall’s ‘Južnjačkoj utjehi’ – the author announces a new, extended edition of the biography for Oliver’s 70th.
Oliver was happy to recall how they loved to sing at home. His first meeting with music he remembers was as a five-year-old when his father Marko got a lip harmonica to entertain the children on the street and the passengers aboard the Split – Vela Luka route.
Oliver’s father bought him his first guitar at ten years old.
“Like everything we did, we bought the guitar with credit. It was desperate, and we had nothing, but I remember it because it was the first one,” said Oliver. Oliver played for the first time with Aljoša in 1957 on Radio Split. They signed up for a radio contest and sang their favorite song “Diana”.
Oliver’s singing was first noticed by Zdenko Runjić after he sang “Baloni” at the Split Children’s Festival. While they did not meet then, Oliver left a strong impression on the composer.
“My older brothers, Ante and Boris, were friends with Oliver and Aljošo, and maybe even played with them. I do not remember who my brothers played with, but I remember Aljoša and Oliver as they played all day in our corridor. I was too small to play with them, but I was always around them,” recalls Meri Cetinić.
As a boy, Oliver spent every summer in Vela Luka.
“Because we didn’t inherit a house, we’d stay at our uncle’s’. By us, it was like a bunch of dogs; full house and 30 of us would sleep in the kitchen, in the corridor, in the courtyard. When we went down to the sea, we talked about excursions,” said Oliver.
The Dragojević brothers sang most often on the terrace of the restaurant in the shipyard. In 1962, Oliver played in the Tequila band, whose name changed to Batali. They listened to Radio Luxemburg at night, learned the songs during the day, and sang in the evening. The band split, and Oliver began to cooperate with Zdenko Runjić. Oliver performed Zdenko’s “Picaferaj” at the Split Festival – but the song went unnoticed.
A disappointed Oliver then went to Germany. Every night from 20.00 to 04.00 he played in clubs in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and France.
During those years, his vocal chords became rough from hours of singing and sleepless nights. He returned to Croatia with 68 kilograms and was too skinny to join Dubrovački trubaduri. But that is when he met his wife today, Vesna, who worked at the Dubrovnik hospital. Though Oliver then had a girlfriend, Vesna followed Oliver around Dubrovnik all day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=b82VcBsb-Es
”When he invited me to his concert, I was embarrassed for somebody to see me with a musician, so I hid in the wardrobe,” said Vesna, who, however, traveled to Split every weekend and married Oliver in 1974. Oliver celebrated with the song “Ča će mi Copacabana”, and later that year, Oliver released some of his greatest hits including “Galeb i ja”. Uslijedile su “Skalinada”, “Nedostaješ mi ti”, “Zbogom ostaj, ljubavi”, “Oprosti mi pape”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=sF9DY6-A60s
Believe it or not, the singer was even once inspired by hospital corridors. While Runjić’s wife Vedrana gave birth to daughter Ivana, and Oliver’s wife to twins Davor and Damir, the song “Ključ života” was born. The hit, from then, kept coming, and concert halls kept filling, but Oliver wanted a change. Runjić said the singer was doing too much and gave him a “red card”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=ZqIw90nw9hc
“He was a great friend, but I had to remove myself from ‘Žutog lišća ljubavi’,” said Oliver. He wanted a different sound and got it. The album “Neka nova svitanja” was produced by Dino Dvornik, and he also created a duet with Tony Cetinsky. When he brought a clip of the song ”Cesarica” home, his mother-in-law said: “Oh, Vesna, of all of Oliver’s songs he has chosen the worst for the festival”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v=4lWgvFQX2MM
Oliver sang in New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Albert Hall, the Paris Olympia and the Opera House in Sydney. His glory and fame never got to his head, and in the summer he fishes and carries olives. In Vela Luka, one of the two people from Zagreb observed the singer carrying olives. One asked, “Is this Oliver?” And the other laughed, saying, “Why would he be carrying olives?”
And even today in Vela Luka there are stories of a man who approached Oliver, unsure if it was him because of his slighter looks. “Sorry, I thought you were Oliver.” “Nothing, nothing,” Oliver replied. A month later, the same man approached him and recounted the occasion. Oliver laughed and said, “Such things happen.”
In August, Dragojević was diagnosed with lung cancer, but the brave singer will not give up the fight to kick the wicked illness.
To celebrate his 70 long and astonishing years, the singer will host two sold-out concerts in his native city of Split on December 15 and 16, 2017. Tickets for both shows at Spaladium Arena sold out in just a few hours.
To an incredible musician and man who has led an even more legendary life, Happy Birthday, Oliver!
